Red Bull vow to be ‘on par’ with Mercedes in 2015, but could a rule change cut the gap for Germany?

DANIEL Ricciardo will have a car capable of fighting for next year’s Formula 1 world championship if Red Bull’s plans for Renault come to fruition.

Despite the Australian’s breakthrough victory in Canada, the French company’s new hybrid power unit has been the anchor around the team’s collective necks in 2014.

Renault’s V6 has struggled to match the level of performance of rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, with Ricciardo and teammate Sebastian Vettel finding themselves un

Their fading fortunes hit a critical point in a dismal showing at Red Bull’s home event in Austria, team boss Christian Horner slamming the Renault unit’s performance and reliability as being “unacceptable.”

“There needs to be change at Renault,” a frustrated Horner said. “It can’t continue like this. It’s not good for Renault and not good for Red Bull.”

The changes have been swift. A managerial shake-up of Renault’s F1 operations has seen Red Bull draw a line under their woeful start to the sport’s new hybrid era.

MAJOR RULE CHANGE TO COME IMMEDIATELY?The FIA is looking to ban a system that links the front and rear suspensions of all cars on the grid, and it could potentially come into force before the Hockenheim race weekend.

Known as Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension (FRIC), it links the front and rear suspensions through a hydraulic system of valves and tubes. It helps minimise the amount the cars pitch under acceleration and braking, as well as minimising the amount they roll when going through corners.

While controlling pitch and roll actively through computer software has been banned in F1 since 1994 the FRIC systems were considered passive, reacting with the car rather than dictating the suspension’s movements.

First introduced into F1 by the then-Renault team as far back as 2008, the entire field has adopted the system in one form or another.

However it is believed that the Mercedes cars are running the most advanced system of all, with their FRIC setup playing a part in the team’s dominance of the 2014 season so far.

Lewis Hamilton en route to victory at Silverstone.Source:Getty Images

Minimising pitch and roll makes a car’s ride height more stable, allowing it to be setup in a way that maximises tyre life — something once a major Mercedes bugbear — and grip as well as consistently achieving the optimum amount of downforce.

Just how much of the car’s pace can be attributed to the system is unknown, but some F1 insiders believe that the Silver Arrows’ speed will be blunted by a mid-season ban.

Several teams tested their cars with the FRIC systems disabled at this week’s two-day F1 test at Silverstone, where Ricciardo finished the opening day right behind Felipe Massa’s pacesetting Williams and ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

While Marussia driver Max Chilton said he was pleased with how quickly his team were able to achieve a similar chassis balance with a now FRIC-less car, he warned that rivals with more complex systems could suffer.

“I hear the Mercedes system is very complicated so it could affect them more,” Chilton said.

The FIA has told teams they have to agree unanimously on allowing the use of FRIC systems through the rest of the season, or else they will be banned prior to the German GP.

Teams with highly-advanced systems, with their entire cars designed around the FRIC philosophy, could run into problems converting their cars to a FRIC-less setup.

“Removing the system and replacing it with an unconnected set-up is not quite as simple as it sounds,” F1 technical analyst Craig Scarborough told Autosport.

“The teams with suspension fully optimised around the FRIC design do not necessarily have the mounting points for a full complement of side, heave and roll elements that an unconnected system requires.

“There may not be the space or sufficient hard points inside the car to create these at short notice.”

The nature of the system used in the Red Bull is not known, but is not believed to be as advanced as that of their rivals.

That could place them in good stead if the system is banned immediately. With that knowledge, would Red Bull contribute to unanimous support of a FRIC amnesty?

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